I only had 4 days in Iceland on my European cruise. Here's why I regret not taking a land-based trip

One of the best parts about cruising is getting to visit incredible destinations with such ease. Once you’re onboard your cruise ship, you can conveniently visit numerous destinations without needing to unpack and repack your suitcase. The logistics and transportation are all taken care of-- all while enjoying fine cuisine and entertainment along the way.

When I wake up in a highly-anticipated port, whether it be a new country or city, it honestly feels like Christmas morning. I get giddy like a little kid! 

My most recent cruise was on Royal Caribbean’s Jewel of the Seas sailing from Amsterdam to Iceland. This 12-night itinerary checked all of my boxes when it came to sail date, ports of call, budget, and preferred cruise line. Iceland was at the top of our list for places I wanted to visit, and I had always desired visiting Amsterdam as well!

Our itinerary featured 4 full days in Iceland with an overnight in Reykjavik, the country’s capital. If possible, I prefer having an overnight stay on port-intensive itineraries, so I can explore at my own pace without needing to rush back to the ship.

However, 4 days in Iceland on a cruise didn’t feel like enough time. The country’s scenery is unlike anything I’ve seen before, and I wished we had more time to explore. Here’s why I regret not taking a land-based trip instead of a cruise to Iceland.

While cruising is my preferred type of vacation, a land-based trip can make more sense for certain destinations.

I’ve been fortunate enough to travel around the world and most of that has been by cruise ship. If a cruise is available where I want to visit, that is usually my top choice for traveling.

At the end of the day, cruises are easy, affordable, and efficient. I’ve also found that cruising is safe and comfortable, especially when visiting destinations that I would not be comfortable planning a land-based trip to.

However, certain destinations have a grey area when it comes to cruising compared to land-based trips. Places in Europe like Spain, France, and Italy immediately come to mind. Some will say that cruising does not give you enough time to fully immerse yourself in these destinations. Others will say cruising is perfectly suitable so you can visit and experiences many different places during your sailing. It truly is up to personal preference! 

I firmly believe there’s a time and place for land-based vacations. I often say that cruising can give you a small taste of certain places; if you fall in love with a destination, that just means you need to plan a return trip!

Additionally, we prefer to spend extra time in our embarkation or disembarkation ports. This creates a balanced combination between relaxing onboard a cruise and spending a few days in the port city exploring.

Since we had been wanting to visit Iceland for a while, I started to look up cruise itineraries that included stops here.

While many mainstream cruise lines offer itineraries to Iceland, the ones with the most stops in Iceland were very expensive.

For example, Viking Cruises offered a very tempting 8-night sailing that exclusively visited Iceland, but those cruises were priced at $3,500 per person! This was definitely not in our budget.

Norwegian Cruise Line, Celebrity Cruises, and Royal Caribbean all offered itineraries to Iceland that interested us as well, but these all had drastically different price points. Norwegian and Celebrity itineraries were nearly $6,000 for Iceland itineraries. It is important to note that these were on brand-new ships offering more to see, do, and eat while onboard. 

Ultimately, we decided to book with Royal Caribbean on Jewel of the Seas because it was more than half the cost of any alternative options. Our balcony guarantee stateroom cost $3,000 for 12-nights, which felt reasonably priced. This breaks down to about $125 per person, per night. 

After making our decision, we had a few people tell us that we shouldn’t consider cruising to Iceland. Instead, they suggested that we should make a land-based trip to Iceland because we simply couldn’t do the country justice in 4 days.

I started to wonder if we should have considered visiting Iceland on our own, without a cruise line.

Although we had 4 days scheduled in Iceland, I worried whether we would regret spending our precious vacation time - and money - to only have 4 days in Iceland.

When taking a land-trip, you inherently have the freedom and flexibility to the explore at your own pace. You can spend as much time as you want in certain cities or destinations. You set your own schedule, essentially. 

On the flip side, you are not on your own schedule when you take a cruise. Instead, you give up basically any control of your schedule. You are only allowed a certain amount of time in each port, and if you miss the ship’s departure, you are left behind to fend for yourself!

Read more: What happens if you miss your cruise ship

However, we thought there were a few major benefits when booking a cruise Iceland. First, the country is very expensive. Food, transportation, and lodging added up to be about the same cost as our cruise when we researched options. Second, we knew there would be beautiful scenery from the ship while sailing around the country that we wouldn't see on land.

Also, cruising can be much more relaxing, as you can be pampered onboard and enjoy many amenities instead of figuring out logistics in a foreign country and transportation. On a cruise ship, you’ll find entertainment, delicious food, and plenty of activities along the way. 

We opted to do the cruise, as we ultimately decided that it would be a good balance of exploring and relaxing for us. 

In the weeks leading up to our cruise, Iceland had a massive storm that disrupted travel, including cruise ships.

Two weeks before our sailing, Iceland received a huge snow storm, creating rough seas and unsafe conditions for cruise ships. Multiple cruise ships were unable to dock, meaning those passengers could not visit Iceland at all. I started to worry about the weather’s impact on our plans.

Of course, if you take a land-based trip, you can also be delayed due to weather. However, you’re still most likely going to get to your destination even if delayed. On a cruise, you are on a strict schedule during a compressed timeframe. 

Cruise lines have agreements with ports, not to mention the logistics for visiting different countries with immigration and customs. Therefore, there is little wiggle room to adjust an itinerary; most likely, you skip ports entirely when it's unsafe to dock. 

I’ve seen other cruisers say you shouldn’t book an itinerary only because of the ports, as the cruise line can change an itinerary at a moment’s notice. This is a valid consideration, as you can dream of visiting a destination and the cruise ship can never make it there anyway. 

I’d honestly be pretty heartbroken if we couldn’t visit Iceland. But, our decision had already been made, and we can’t control the weather. We simply had to wish for the best, but this was another consideration for taking a land-based trip that I hadn't thought about. 

After we successfully (and thankfully!) made it to Iceland, we spent four very busy exploring the country.

Our first two days in Iceland were spent exploring Reykjavik and the surrounding areas. Because we had two full days and an overnight in the capital city, we opted to rent a car and drive The Golden Circle.

Having a car allowed us flexibility to plan our day around our own schedule. Since the cruise ship did not leave until the following evening, we weren’t on a tight timeline. Also, booking a rental car instead of a shore excursion saved us around $400. Finally, we preferred having our own vehicle rather than being on a large group tour. 

From the city, we spent the entire day visiting waterfalls, geysers and craters. Driving in the Icelandic countryside was unbelievably stunning! The scenery was unlike anything I have seen before. We ended our evening by exploring the city center with dinner and drinks, similar to how we’d spend a day on a land-based vacation.

The next day, we visited the serene and rejuvenating Sky Lagoon in the city before making our way around Reykjavik for more shopping and sightseeing. However, we didn’t get to see it all in Reykjavik, including a few the must-see spots from the city.

That’s one of downfalls of a cruise: not having ample time to see everything.

For example, we did not have enough time to visit the southern part of the island to see the black sand beaches or some of the famous waterfalls down there. We also didn’t have enough time to do the Blue Lagoon, one of the most famous spots in Iceland.

Instead, with just two days in the area, we really had to prioritize what we wanted to see most in the city.

After two days in the capital, our other two days in Iceland were spent up north in the remote towns of Ísafjörður and Seyðisfjörður.

While we regretted not having more time in Reykjavik, sailing to the northern part of Iceland was breathtaking. We saw so much wildlife and scenery from our ship as we sailed in and out of the Icelandic fjords.

Had we taken a land-based trip, we likely wouldn’t have visited these remote towns of Ísafjörður and Seyðisfjörður. In fact, it would have taken us more than 18 hours of driving to visit these two towns from Reykjavik. On a cruise, you can easily visit destinations that would be difficult to reach by land. Cruising is so efficient!

Ísafjörður is a small, remote town in the Westfjord region of Iceland, known for its dramatic landscapes. We were only docked here from 7am to 3pm, so we decided to get off the ship as early as possible.

While I would have loved taking a puffin tour to a nearby island, we opted to rent electric scooters and ride along the entire fjord since our time in port was shorter. The views were unlike anything I’d ever seen before! I couldn’t believe what my eyes were seeing. We also visited a local bakery and walked around the city center before returning to our ship.

The next day in Seyðisfjörður, we booked an excursion to hike Hengifoss Waterfall. This is the third highest waterfall in Iceland. The waterfall is particularly notorious due to the striking red clay and black basalt patterns of the cliffside.

As we sailed away from Iceland, we were bummed that we didn’t have more time in the country.

On this itinerary, we had 3 more port stops in the UK and Ireland before returning to Amsterdam. Since we have already traveled extensively in these countries, these ports were not necessarily a huge highlight for us.

This is another downfall of taking a cruise to visit a specific destination. You are often sailing on an itinerary with other ports that you might not want to visit - or that you’ve already visited.

Having just four days in Iceland left us both wishing we had a few more days to fully experience the country. Immediately after leaving, we wanted to start planning our next trip back to the country-- this time, on land!

My perfect itinerary would have had all stops in Iceland, such as adding two more cities to the one we sailed to. But this is a sacrifice you make when you book a cruise, as you cannot cherry-pick the perfect itinerary for you (unless you own your own cruise ship-- in that case, please let me sail with you!).

However, I think we certainly made the most of our four days in Iceland without blowing the budget. I also appreciated having the convenience of cruising by being able to relax, indulge and be entertained while a cruise ship transports you to our next destination. We weren't exhausted after our trip because we had sea days to rest and reset. 

Although cruising is a fantastic way to explore new destinations, sometimes a land-based trip can be the better option.

When deciding the best way to visit a certain country or city, you might be torn between taking a cruise versus traveling directly to a destination for a land vacation. Typically, we compare the cost between the two options while also debating whether we want to relax or explore more.

We tend to find a combination of both if our budget allows. If we can spend time exploring the embarkation port - or another nearby city or country - then we absolutely make that happen. Then, after a few days exploring on our own, we can’t wait to get onboard a cruise ship where our food, entertainment, and lodging is already paid for. We can relax after some intensive exploration.

On the other hand, taking a land-based vacation can be the best option if you have your heart set on exploring a specific destination in-depth. You can set your own agenda and itinerary to fit your travel needs, but you’ll have to figure out more logistics and you will spend more time getting from one city to another compared to the efficiency of a cruise.

With anything, the right choice for you might not be the best choice for someone else. Everyone has different travel styles.

Looking back, I might have considered booking a cruise that departed from Iceland instead. This would have allowed us to explore the country on our own before sailing to other nearby destinations, but you live and you learn - we still had a fantastic time!